A North Texas woman has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after two men she was with were shot to death by law enforcement officers following a bank robbery in southeast Oklahoma.
Online court records show Rachael Marie Spear, 34, of the Dallas area, was charged in the Thursday deaths of Jeremy Dysart, 35, of North Richland Hills, Texas, and Justin Whisenhunt, 31, of White Settlement, Texas.
The records do not show an attorney for Spear, who remains jailed without bond.
She was charged under a state law allowing for a murder conviction if an accomplice is killed during the commission of a crime.
The filing in Pushmataha County District Court, dated Friday, said Dysart and Whisenhunt were killed when Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Blades opened fire after the pickup truck the three were in went off Oklahoma Highway 3 near Antlers to avoid stop sticks placed at an OHP roadblock, then drove toward Blades.
Troopers and county deputies were chasing the truck after the robbery of a bank in Wright City, allegedly committed by Whisenhunt.
An affidavit filed in the case said Spear told investigators the three traveled to Wright City where Whisenhunt had relatives. She said that Whisenhunt told her he had to go to the bank to pick up inheritance money left by his recently deceased father, but when he returned he carried a white trash bag filled with money.
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She said Whisenhunt drove, refusing to stop until leaving the roadway at the roadblock, the affidavit said. She said she was thrown to the floor of the truck and surrendered when it finally came to rest in a ditch.
Blades has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation probe into the shooting.
